Digital Economy Bill - what does it mean for regular users?

[Mousy]

I'd link you to some relevant news articles or other information about the new Digital Economy Bill that is being pushed through in the UK at the moment, but I don't actually know which ones give reliable information or a good description about it. To be honest, I'm not sure if I've even taken on board all of the nuances of the bill, I certainly don't know what all the separate clauses are - but so far what I have gathered is that it will mean that any sites that link to copyrighted content are in danger of being blocked (surely that could range from deviantART to Youtube?) and that ISPs will be forced to police their users and potentially disconnect them from the internet or slow down their service if they are found to be -- now here's the thing, I don't know the key verb here - you see, I'm not sure if all of this applies to sharing copyrighted content, accessing it or both. Most of this appears to be in favour of the media industry, to prevent piracy, but it has been argued that it also spells danger for legitimate filesharing among independent musicians etc.

I don't think (er... I hope) that England's internet services are going to turn out to be like China's, with websites blocked willy-nilly, but I don't understand what this new bill means for a regular user like me. Am I in danger because I have uploaded silly photomanipulations using photos found on the internet? Will the bill allow the power to block larger websites such as deviantART from access, merely because some users on the site upload stolen artwork? Are file downloaders going to be cracked down on as much as file sharers? Is some of this scare-mongering? I just don't know. Has anyone got a good idea?

[AshtonBlack]

The thing about this is, ofcom haven't worked out the "technical" issues of the whole thing. With one simple action, you can encrypt your internet connection with anything up to military grade (if you can get hold of it) algorithms. It's well within the ability of most computer literate people which means the ISP's can no longer tell what sort of traffic is flowing through your connection. So the only people this will catch will be innocents and the computer illiterate, but the politicians are paid (sorry did I say paid? I meant, they listen to their constituents ) by the large media companies and so had to do be seen to be doing something, even if the chances are it will be ineffective.

As for blocking websites, yeah good luck with that, 'cos the above method means that any national firewall will also be ineffective.

They'd better come up with a better method of enforcing this.
Anyone requiring details about what I am on about PM me.

[PsychoSerenity]

No I haven't seen any good explanations about it either, but I'm not too worried.

What I usually torrent is American TV shows which, after the first season, sky have decided they want exclusively. I could just go around to my friends house and watch them for free there, so I've never been completely sure if what I'm doing is actually illegal.

The geeks and nerds will always be four or five steps ahead of the politics though. It's what we do.

I don't think it'll be long before enough people realise that free sharing of information is a good thing. There have been quite a few successful my-space musicians over the last few years - and independent games, films, artists of all sorts are doing very well out of the internet.

The fact is - the publishing monopolies are falling, and the world is going to keep changing no matter how much the politicians are paid to try and stop it.


Edit: 50th Post!! (actually a big deal for me as I'm usually more of a lurker)

[ficklefiend]

What I usually torrent is American TV shows which, after the first season, sky have decided they want exclusively. I could just go around to my friends house and watch them for free there, so I've never been completely sure if what I'm doing is actually illegal.

It is, although you are not alone. Most people I know have at least one programme they follow by torrent from the US.

Even those that don't know how to torrent watch streaming content on video sites.

I'm guessing, if you were to really crack down on it, 95% of people with a computer will have done something illegal with it.

[Feck]

My ISP already mess with my (totally legal ) downloads some times U-torrent gives me lots of error messages saying my firewall is blocking it at other times it is fine .....
Think I need to talk to Mr Black about this .....